Qualitative Research in Information Systems

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Qualitative ResearchinInformation Systems
Modern thinking and approaches to analysing
Information Systems
Steven Harris BA MSc MBCS CITP
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Agenda

• What is QR in IS
• QR methods
• Key theories in IS
• Summary

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1. What is QR in IS?

• 1.1 Overview
• 1.2 Definition
• 1.2 3 major philosophies

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1.1 Definition

• Qualitative research is a field of inquiry
  where qualitative researchers aim to gather an
  in-depth understanding of human behaviour and the
  reasons that govern such behaviour. The
  qualitative method investigates the why and how
  of decision making, not just what, where, when.

Source Wikipedia 2009
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1.2 Overview

• Quantitative
• Natural sciences
• Study natural phenomena
• Methods include Labs, mathematical modelling,
  surveys etc.

• Qualitative
• Social sciences
• Study social and cultural phenomena
• Methods include case study, participatory
  research and ethnography

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1.3 Philosophies

• What constitutes valid research ?
• 3 basic philosophies
• Positivist
• Interpretive
• Critical

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1.3.1 Positivist

• Believe in a set of fixed relationships that can
  be discovered using structured instrumentation
• Serves to test theories
• Examples propositions, hypotheses, drawing
  inferences from a sample to the general
  population

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1.3.2 Interpretive

• Understanding phenomena through accessing the
  meanings that participants assign to them
  Orlikowski / Baroudi 1991

Instead of factual accounts there is a
relativistic understanding of phenomena Examples
Increase understanding within the context,
examine phenomena from participants perspective
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1.3.3 Critical

• Critique social systems
• Aim is to expose deep-seated structural
  contradictions within social systems Orlikowski
  / Baroudi 1991
• Example Revealing historical, ideological and
  contradictory nature of existing social practice

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Summary
Qualitative research
I n f l u e n c e s / G u i d e s
Positivist
Interpretive
Critical
U n d e r l y I n g e p i s t e m o l o g y
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2. QR methods
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Methods

• 2.1 Case studies
• 2.2 Action research
• 2.3 Ethnographic research

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2.1 Case research strategy

• Most common form of research
• Investigates phenomena within their context

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• Questions to be determined
• Choose a site
• Determine the unit of analysis
• Determine how many
• How will data be collected?
• How will data be analysed?

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2.2 Action research

• Joint collaboration
• To add to the body of knowledge
• History can be traced to the 1940s and the idea
  of social action for battlefield social disorders
• Not without controversy

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2.3 Ethnographic research

• Historically comes from anthropology
• Immersion in the life of the people he studies
  Lewis, 1985

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3. Key theories in IS
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Theories

• 3.1 Critical Success Factors
• 3.2 IS Evaluation
• 3.3 IS Benefits Realisation
• 3.4 Resistance

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3.1 Critical Success Factors
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• Top 5 CSFs
• Top management support
• Project team competence
• Inter-departmental co-operation
• Clear goals and objectives
• Project management

Source Somers and Nelson, 2001, EJoIS
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Case study ERP in Aviation industry

• Akkermans and van Helden, 2001
• Decision in 1997 to install a new ERP
• Initially very bad progress
• Supplier contracted with consultant
• (11th hour)
• Eventually October 1998 deadline met

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• Top 22 CSFs
• Top management support
• Project team competence
• Inter-departmental co-operation
• Clear goals and objectives
• Project management
• Interdepartmental communication
• Management of expectations
• Project champion
• Vendor support
• Careful package selection
• Data analysis and conversion

12. Dedicated resources 13. Steering
committee 14. User training 15. Education on new
business processes 16. BPR 17. Minimal
customisation 18. Architecture choices 19. Change
management 20. Vendor partnership 21. Vendors
tools 22. Use of consultants
Source Somers and Nelson, 2001, EJoIS
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Examples ?
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3.2 IS Evaluation

• S Smithson R Hirschheim, 1998
• Complex and difficult due to organisational and
  political factors
• Becoming more demanding and complex

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Objective / Rational
EFFICIENCY ZONE
EFFECTIVENESS ZONE
UNDERSTANDING ZONE
Subjective / Political
Adapted from S Smithson R Hirschheim, 1998
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Example
Objective / Rational
e.g. benchmarking, QA teams, QA Management
Standards
e.g. CSFs, risk analysis, cost-benefit analysis,
finance based techniques
e.g. business transformation, life cycle
methodologies, discourse
Subjective / Political
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Business transformation
Strategic systems
Inter-organizational systems
Infrastructure
MIS and decision support systems
Direct value added systems
Automation
Mandatory changes
Benefits evaluation ladder Farbey et. Al. 1993
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Case Study Alpha

• Fortune 500 company
• Outsourced IT
• Difficulty in evaluating its success
• E.g. Lower corporate costs
• E.g. Lower service levels
• E.g. useful alliance versus shortfall in
  relationships

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Examples ?
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3.3 Benefits Realisation

• Lifecycle approach to benefits
• Recognition of the weakness of current methods
• Recognition that IS/IT enables benefit
  opportunities does NOT deliver them of itself

Source J.Ward, P.Taylor, P.Bond, 1996, EJofIS
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Source Cranfield Management School
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How do organisations go about capturing the
benefits that IS delivers?
Headlines lt50 used an appraisal technique lt25
considered intangibles 75 failed to reveal all
the benefits most were 'working, on time, to
budget'.
Source J.Ward, P.Taylor, P.Bond, 1996, EJofIS
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Examples ?
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3.4 Resistance
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People-determined
e.g. persons or groups have resisted due to
internal factors
Solution Change behaviour or change the person
/ group
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System-determined
e.g. poor system design, poor performance, not
user friendly etc.
Solution Solve the technical issues / change
the software and resistance will be overcome
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Interaction theory
POWER
people or groups resist systems because of an
interaction between characteristics related to
the people and characteristics related to the
system Source M. Lynne Marjus, 1983,
Communications of the ACM
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Case Study GTC Corporation

• Financial Information System
• Divisional versus Corporate accountants
• Managerial versus financial accounting
• Technical Downtime, late reports, lack of codes
• People Career development allowed people to move
  jobs and appreciated the problems from a
  different perspective

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What does the interaction theory of IS mean for
the IS implementations?

• It will always be difficult
• Changing people will only have a marginal effect
• Changing systems will only have a marginal effect

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Examples ?
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4. Summary
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4.1
Information Systems dont just happen!
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4.2
Information Systems are collaborative
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4.3
Information Systems are different from software
applications
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Software Application
Information System
Multiple stakeholders Application is contained
within the solution Multiple users Different
aims Range of ways to implement
Focus on function Focus on UI Focus on end
user Single aim Technical implementation
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Further reading

• Communications of the ACM - www.cacm.acm.org/
• Proceedings of the Intl. Conf. on IS Mgmt.
• http//www.academic-conferences.org/icime/icime201
  0/icime10-home.htm
• Management Science - http//www.informs.org/site/M
  anSci/
• MIS Quarterly - http//www.misq.org/
• European Journal of Information Systems
• http//www.palgrave-journals.com/ejis/index.html
• International Journal of Innovation and
  Technology Management
• http//www.worldscinet.com/ijitm/
• IS Research - http//www.informs.org/site/ISR/
• Journal of IT - http//www.palgrave-journals.com/j
  it/index.html

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Thanks!

• Q A

harris.steven_at_virgin.net